RELIGIOUS chanting kept scores of Blackburn residents awake in the early hours of this morning.

Police received more than 100 calls from people complaining about the noise coming from a Muslim festival attended by 400 people which was taking place near Blackburn Crematorium.

The event, which took place between 11.45pm and 2am, is an annual occasion but this was the first time a PA system had been used.

Local resident Oliver Smalley, 24, said: "I was in bed and I could hear the noise outside with the window shut.

"I drove down towards Pleasington Cemetery and saw about 15 to 20 residents outside all complaining about the noise.”

When police arrived at the scene they instructed that the PA system should be turned down due to the complaints and the organisers did so immediately.

A spokesman for Lancashire police said: “Officers attended the cemetery, which was the setting for a religious evening, and asked the organisers to switch off the loud speaker system.

"The organisers fully co-operated with the request and the remainder of the event passed without incident.”

Councillor Salim Mulla, who arranges for the cemetery gates to be opened every year for the festival, said: “There is no need whatsoever for them to be speaking so loud on a PA system.”

The use of the site was fully permitted by the council but there was no mention of a PA system.

An investigation is now being carried out by the Lancashire Council of Mosques to determine how it was allowed to happen.

Maullana Rashid, of Dav Islami, the Accrington-based organisers, said: “We were unaware of how loud we were.

"Once we got the complaint we turned the speaker down to the point where some people at the back of the gathering couldn’t hear.”